


Two's Company, But Three's a-

by RenkonNairu



Series: Eternia's Dark Mirror (is brighter than you think) [3]
Category: He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse (Comic), He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Genre: Anti-Eternia, Bisexual Keldor, Established Relationship, Eternia's Dark Mirror, F/M, Keldor!He-Man, M/M, Masters of the Multiverse (comic), Melodrama, Poly Relationship, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27117577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenkonNairu/pseuds/RenkonNairu
Summary: Polyamorous relationships are forbidden in Beastmen culture. There's an important Beastmen holiday coming up and Red Beast's parents want him to come home to observe the ceremonies, and introduce them to his lover. But Red doesn't know how to tell his parents that he doesn't have just one lover but two. Keldor thinks he's helping, but all he succeeds in doing is making things worse.Based off the "Masters of the Multiverse" comic by DC and taking place in the Anti-Eternia universe.
Relationships: Beastman (He-Man)/Evil-Lyn, Beastman/Evil-Lyn/Keldor (He-Man), Evil-Lyn/Keldor (He-Man), Keldor (He-Man)/Beastman (He-Man)
Series: Eternia's Dark Mirror (is brighter than you think) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959025
Comments: 17
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Red Beast checked a lunar calendar chart and compared it against the main solar calendar that most of Eternia used. 

The Beastmen Spring Festival was coming up and his parents already asked him (multiple times) if he was coming home to observe the holiday, and if he would be bringing his ‘girlfriend from Eternos’ with him. 

Red never told his parents that he didn’t just have a girlfriend, he had one girlfriend and one boyfriend. He, Evelyn Powers, and Prince Keldor were in one relationship together. Something Red already knew his parents would neither understand, nor approve of. 

Setting down the lunar chart, Red turned to the bed he shared with both his partners. 

Keldor was asleep on the bed. Laying on his belly, the blankets slipping down to display the curve of his lower back. His jewel-blue skin glistening with a sheen of sweat from their exertions only moments before. His hair a tousled mess laying over the scared half of his face, one pointed blue ear poking out of the tangle. His mouth slightly open, and drooling on the pillow. He was not a very attractive sleeper. 

That wasn’t why Red was concerned about introducing both Lyn and Keldor to his parents. 

The Beastmen culture (overall) practiced monogamy. One mate at a time, usually one mate for an individual’s whole life (there were, of course, exceptions to that). But Red, currently, had not one mate but two. 

Beastmen conventions didn’t explicitly forbid same-sex couplings, but there was a general –mostly unspoken- mass disapproval of such relationships. 

Red’s parents would not approve of Keldor. 

Heck! They would barely approve of Lyn! 

Beastmen also frowned on interbreeding with other races, and Evelyn Powers was human. None of them planned on having any children within the foreseeable future, but that wouldn’t matter to his parents. Parents had an odd tendency to forget that their children were allowed to have opinions and make decisions about their own lives when the subject of grandchildren came up. Red almost didn’t hear the end of it when his younger sister had cubs before him.

Living in Eternos, his parents understood that there just weren’t many Beastmen women for him to date. So they knew than any girlfriend he did get, would most likely be another race. Humans were the dominant race on Eternia and Lyn was human. So, his parents would approve of her. But only just. 

With a dejected sigh, Red crawled back into bed. 

In his sleep, Keldor rolled over in bed and wrapped both arms and legs around Red Beast, cuddling him close and muttering into his layer of fur, “So fluffy…”

Lyn came out of the shower, toweling off her hair. “Looks like he caught you.”

“I wasn’t trying to get away.” Adjusting his position, Red stroked a paw through Keldor’s hair, brushing it out of his face and hooking it back behind one of his pointed ears. 

Finishing toweling off her hair, Lyn crawled into bed on Red’s other side and similarly cuddled close to him. “Give it a couple months. As we get closer to summer, he’ll be trying to get away from you and all this fur.”

She raked her nails through Red’s thick, auburn colored fur. Scratching up his back and over his shoulder. Up the neck and behind the ears. Red Beast purred at the attention. Evelyn had the best nails!

“You won’t like me so much in the summer either.” Red informed her. “I shed. A lot.”

Lyn settled down under the covers. With a hand she tried to comb her still slightly damp hair as much off the pillow as possible. “Then I guess Keldor and I are just gonna have to brush you more often.”

“Are we gonna integrate that into our foreplay?” Red asked. 

His tone was teasing. But, actually, the idea sounded very appealing to him. Brushing each other’s fur –or in Lyn and Keldor’s case, their hair- was very intimate and actually one of the more traditional ways Beastmen mates bonded (aside from the obvious method of physical coupling). Did Lyn know that when she suggested it?

Lyn only shrugged. “If that’s what you’re into. I have no objections.”

She turned off the lamp on the bedside table and settling in to sleep. 

Red rolled over and stroked a hand through Keldor’s hair again. He looked at the scared side of his sleeping face. 

Although, ‘scared’ was an understatement. Keldor didn’t have half of a face to be scared. It was gone. One half of his face was burned off and scraped away, leaving only bare and polished bone in its place. A high forehead under the hairline, smooth brow ridge, sharp cheekbone, and straight teeth set in the jaw. The eye socket was empty and completely, not even the remnants of an eyeball inside. It remained open, even while Keldor’s good eye was closed in sleep, staring unblinking with its death glare. 

Red didn’t mind Keldor’s scared face. In fact, after the Years Long War against Anti-He-Man, many people, both warrior and common alike, had disfiguring scars. Scars were actually a good thing. It meant a person survived. 

Keldor’s half of an exposed skull just happened to make people more uncomfortable than the average scar. Red knew it would make his own parents uncomfortable. 

He’d just have to call his parents in the morning and tell them that he would not be coming home for the Spring Festival, and so they would not get to meet his ‘girlfriend from Eternos’.


	2. Chapter 2

Keldor was not in bed when Evelyn’s alarm woke them up for the day. He was, instead, sneaking back into the room, holding his boots in his hand to walk softer, the tips of his fingers covered in paint. He froze, mid-step, and looked at both of them on the bed. 

“Okay, I know you told me to stop going out and tagging the city.” He began an explanation. “But I just finished my masterpiece last night and it’s amazing.”

Lyn rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. “Is that your way of saying you want us to come look at whatever you painted?”

Keldor didn’t actually answer, he just placed his hands behind his back, shrugged his shoulders, and twisted one foot over the rug. 

Sighing, Lyn climbed out of bed and started getting dressed. If Keldor was gonna drag them half-way across the city to look at whatever new municipal building he had tagged last night, then she wanted to be dressed for a day out. 

Red shrugged as he too climbed out of bed and started getting dressed. He could call his parents after they got back from looking at Keldor’s new painting. 

Keldor did not drag them halfway across the city. In fact, they did not even leave the palace. Keldor just lead them to the top walkway of the outermost palace wall. 

“Morning, Teela.” He waved at the guard stationed there. 

“Your Highness.” She offered a polite bow. 

Teela used to be a Captain of the Eternian guard. But after being corrupted by anti-Truth and joining Anti-He-Man’s Evil Warriors and terrorizing Eternia during the Years Long war, she could not return to her old rank and position. She was exorcised of the negative energy, but her peers did not trust her, the soldiers would not take commands from her. She could not continue as a Captain. So she was demoted back to being a grunt soldier and low-rank guard on the outer wall. 

“Teela, how are you holding up?” Lyn asked

“Much better now.” Teela nodded. “I’m learning to make peace with myself, and guarding the wall isn’t so bad. I keep myself entertained.”

“What’s that counter on the wall, Teela?” Red asked. 

Mounted on the rampart, hanging on a hook wedged between two stones, was a plaque that read ’11 Days’.

Keldor and Teela exchanged a look and a grin of amusement. 

“That’s one of the ways I keep myself entertained.” Teela announced. “The number of days that’ve gone by without His Grace, King Randor, noticing all of Prince Keldor’s… art.”

Both Red Beast and Lyn got an uncomfortable feeling when she said that. Knowing that they were not going to like whatever it was Keldor brought them up here to show them. 

Keldor climbed up onto the rampart, standing on the top of the wall, he offered both hands out to them. “C’mon, guys, you gotta see it!”

Exchanging a look between them, Lyn and Red climbed up onto the rampart on either side of him and looked out over the city. 

They did not see one mural spray painted by Keldor, they saw several. Each one rendered in vivid colors, placed on a government building (Keldor did not tag citizen’s private property), and each one facing the palace.

There was a simple 4 color one of Anti-He-Man fighting the new He-Man (Keldor as He-Man), rendered in red and black, and blue and white. 

There was one with soft lines and gentle sepia tones that looked like Keldor might have actually used brushes on for parts of it, a woman dressed in a falcon headdress with a feather cape hugging and protecting a younger woman who looked suspiciously like Teela. 

A portrait of the late King Miro, wearing his old armor with a fur cape thrown over his shoulders. 

A Dylinx painted in primarily purple, it’s body curling in one of the many awkward but adorable looking ways cat’s liked to contort themselves. 

And an abstract piece with long and delicately curving lines, bright colors and bold contrasts. 

“You’ve been busy.” Lyn commented, unsure what else she was supposed to say. Was she supposed to praise him? For sneaking out of the palace every night and marking up the city. 

“No wonder you’re always so tired in the mornings.” Red concluded. “Which one’s your master piece?”

“They all are.” Keldor smiled at him. “Look at them again. Can you read them?”

Confused, Red and Lyn looked at the murals again. The way Anti-He-Man and Keldor-He-Man were facing off, their bodies straights and their swords between them, they almost formed the letter H. 

The one of what they assumed was the Sorceress hugging Teela, with the way they were standing and the colors and shading of the background kinda looked vaguely like the letter I. 

‘Hi.’

But neither of them could discern any kind of lettering, abstract of otherwise, within the other three.

“It’s okay.” Keldor assured them. “The other three use the Gar writing systems. That one-“ he pointed to the portrait of the late King Miro “-if you look at the armor, you’ll see it forms the character for brother. The one of Panthor, I’ve got him twisted to form the character ‘sa’, and the last one is abstract because I couldn’t think of a way to paint an actual subject and get them to look like the character ‘n’ without making them look misshapen and weird.”  
All five murals seen together were supposed to read ‘Hi, 兄さん’

“Do we not give you enough attention?” Red asked, feeling concerned. This was a lot of work for something so silly. 

“Can King Randor even read the Gar language?” Lyn asked. 

“Oh, yeah. Randor knows more kanji than I do!” Keldor assured them. “He was always one of those studious and over-achieving types.” 

Lyn just continued to purse her lips in concern. “What about that counter? If you just finished last night, how can Teela have counted eleven days already?”

“Oh, heh.” Teela looked a little awkward. “That’s how many days it’s been since I went to Castle Hellskull and learned that Prince Keldor is the new He-Man. I’ve been watching him paint the city since I resumed my guard duties and after I learned his secret, I started counting how long it would take King Randor to find his art. Thus far, the King has not even walked the grounds of the palace, let alone looked out over the wall.”

“Randor barely leaves his office, actually.” Keldor added. He hopped down from the rampart and leaned against the stone railing, looking out over his work. “I sometimes wonder if he thinks, if he can get Eternia back to thriving like it was before Anti-He-Man, that Adam might miraculously come back. I looked up the stages of grief not too long ago and when I talked to him as He-Man before, he was definitely in Denial. Now I wonder if he’s moved on to Bargaining.”

Almost collectively, everyone looked down at their feet, shuffling a bit and looking inward. They were all going through some kind of grief, or processing the trauma of the last few years. After living through a Years Long war that spread across the whole planet, ravaged townships and communities, killed people you knew, and just generally made life hell, it was hard to bounce back. People couldn’t just go back to the way things were. Hell! Some people didn’t even remember the way things were! 

Before the war, Randor had a family. A wife and two children. Now all he had was one disappointment of a younger brother. 

Before the war, Teela was a Captain in the Eternos royal guard and personal body guard to the Crown Prince, Adam. Now, she was a lowly grunt again with a thankless and unimportant post. 

Before the war, Evelyn was a scholar and aspiring sorceress who came to Eternos to study and teach, and had never even seen a battlefield. Now she was a veteran who fought in multiple battles, including the final fight at Castle Hellskull itself. 

“So you made a series of murals taunting your brother.” Lyn scoffed. “How is this different than what you did before you were He-Man?”

“These are better planned.” Keldor insisted.

Lyn only sighed and lifted her helmet enough to run her fingers through her hair. “I have work to do.” She moved to leave, then doubled back to give Red and Keldor each a kiss on the cheek. “The art’s very nice.”

Then she left for real. 

Red had responsibilities of his own to get to. Training new warriors and assessing and reviewing those that had returned to them after being cleansed of anti-Truth. Most of his time was spent in their training yard. He could just make a quick call to his parents on his way down. 

“I better get going to.” He said to Keldor, and gave him a chase kiss same as Lyn had done. “Try not to get into too much trouble with the King.” 

On his way down to the training yard, he was intercepted and stopped by Trap Jaw. 

“Prince Keldor’s upstairs.” He informed him, assuming he was looking for the Prince in some capacity as the King’s lieutenant. 

It was a little early in the day for King Randor to be summoning his brother to his office for a disappointed lecture. But that didn’t mean it was out of the question. Red wondered if Trap Jaw would notice Keldor’s murals, he was Gar and actually from Anwat Gar. Standard Eternian Common was actually Trap Jaw’s second language, Garese was his first. 

“I’m actually looking for you.” Trap Jaw informed him. 

“Oh?” Red was confused. 

It wasn’t a normal thing for the King or the King’s lieutenants to want to talk to him. Aside from his intimate relationship with the Prince, Red Beast was neither a member of the nobility, nor a high enough ranked warrior to earn the King’s attention. Unless this was in regards to Keldor. Randor hadn’t noticed the mural series yet. Did Randor already know that Keldor was the new He-Man? 

A little cautiously, Red asked, “What can I help you with?”

“You’re from the Vine Jungle, right?” Asked Trap Jaw. 

“Yes…?” Red replied, still unsure what the other wanted from him. 

Trap Jaw audibly sighed with relief. “I’ve been getting reports that the King’s supply shipments aren’t reaching the Beastmen in the Vine Jungle. Since you’re familiar with the region, I’m sending you with the next one to make sure it reaches its destination safely.”

“Oh. Um…” How did he tell the King’s lieutenant that he preferred not to go home at this time?

“They have some kind of holiday coming up soon, too, right?” Continued Trap Jaw. “We should probably get that food to them before then.”

“The Spring Festival.” Red nodded. “And it’s a planting and fertility festival. We’ll be planting crops for the next season.”

There was a pause as Trap Jaw didn’t know what to do with that information. He neither asked, nor was he particularly interested. It wasn’t necessary information for him to do his job. 

“Okay.” He finally said after a prolonged silence. “I’ll tell the King that you’ll accompany the next shipment to the Vine Jungle.” 

“But, I-“ Red wasn’t planning on returning home, but he cut himself off when he realized he didn’t have a reason to go home that would sound valid to the King. ‘I just don’t want to’, was something that never seemed very compelling to Randor when Keldor used it. If the King wasn’t willing to indulge his brother, he would not be willing to indulge his brother’s lover. Red sighed audibly. Looks like he’d be going home for the Spring Festival after all. “I’ll be ready to go by the time the shipment has to leave.”

…

As one would assume by the name, the Vine Jungle was a jungle, and it was very humid. 

All three of Tri-Klops’ eye lenses were fogged over and he had to continuously wipe them clean in order to continue to see clearly. Lyn was sweating so much the tassels that dangled from the front of her leotard were sticking to her thighs and she had to remove her cape for better air circulation. Keldor gathered up all his long hair and fixed it into a messy bun on top of his head. 

“It’s so hot~!” Complained the Prince. 

“It’s not actually that hot.” Red informed them all. He held out one arm as if to show the others. “Look, I’m not even shedding. It’s the humidity that’s really bothering you.”

“Anwat Gar has some pretty humid summers. But this is absurd!” Keldor bemoaned. 

Tri-Klops cleared his throat. “Begging your pardon, Your Highness, but why are you even here?”

This was a shipment not a diplomatic trip and didn’t require any kind of dignitary or representative to accompany them. What it needed was strong warriors and competent sorcerers to protect the cargo. Keldor was studying sorcery, but he was not a very good one. He sure as heck wasn’t a warrior! According to Randor, Keldor lost half his face just tripping down some stairs! 

“Why not?” Keldor asked. He pulled out a Gar sensu fan and fanned himself leisurely, as if he were on some kind of pleasure trip and not accompanying a mercy shipment of foodstuffs to villages and settlements that had suffered heavy losses during the war. “I’ve never been to the Vine Jungle before. Now that the war’s over, I should get to see all the exotic places on my planet.”

In actuality, the reason Keldor invited himself along on the trip was because he heard that the shipments weren’t reaching the people they were meant to felt that was something He-Man should get involved with. 

Truthfully, Keldor didn’t know what the responsibilities of He-Man actually were. He assumed He-Man’s intended purpose was to be some kind of guardian and/or protector of Eternia. Castle Hellskull was so old that there were references to it reaching as far back as the Preternia Era. Hellskull had been around longer than Eternia had been one united planetary nation. Since He-Man and the castle were connected, and Hellskull had always been around, Keldor assumed that He-Man and Hellkull were meant to be Eternia’s champion and custodian. 

Following that logic, he had to investigate when a village –or multiple villages- weren’t getting their food. 

Tri-Klops only sighed with exasperation. It was the first day of their journey and he was already exhausted by Prince Keldor’s flippant attitude and frivolous pursuits. “Did that really convince the King to let you come?”

“Of course not! I didn’t ask his permission.” Keldor just continued to waft his sensu fan, as if nothing was a miss and he didn’t have a care in the world. Never mind that fact that almost two weeks ago, Randor flat out told his brother that he did not want him leaving the city. It was dangerous outside Eternos and Keldor was not a warrior, and he was a pretty lousy sorcerer too. Keldor could not defend himself and Randor did not want to lose the only living family he had left. “I figured I’d just ask his forgiveness once we got back.”

Tri-Klops sputtered helplessly. He did not want to be reprimanded by the King for his brother’s reckless behavior. 

“If you’re worried about the Prince’s safety, that’s why I’m here.” Lyn cut in. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of her cheek and she had to lift her helmet for her head to get a little air. It was really humid. Everything was sticky. “You boys just focus on protecting the cargo and I’ll focus on protecting Prince Keldor.”

As if He-Man needed someone to protect him. 

Tri-Klops heaved another exasperated sigh. 

Wanting to change the subject from Keldor, Red cleared his throat. “What’s supposed to be intercepting the shipments?” He asked. “The reports didn’t specify. Is it bandits again? The Smithra Gang?”

“Actually, all the guards that Trap Jaw and I interviewed, they all claimed that it was the jungle itself that attacked them.” Tri-Klops informed him, his tone implying that this was one of the most absurd things he’d ever heard. 

“Hm, must be the catcher plants.” Red nodded, the possibility of the jungle attacking and possibly eating cargo and people making perfect sense to him. He didn’t even bat an eyelash. 

“The what now?” Tri-Klops blinked all three of his eyes. 

“The catcher plants.” Red repeated. “If you’re not careful, they’ll catch you.” A pause for dramatic affect. “And eat you.”

“Like a venus fly trap?” Keldor asked. 

“More like ambush predators.” Red informed them. “They’re a bit more proactive than the average plant.” 

Looking around them, Red spotted a juvenile planet growing a bit of a ways off the trail. He bent down and scooped up a large twig. He lobbed it at the plant. 

What looked like a large hanging leaf flipped up to reveal a large maw underneath with multiple rings of sharp teeth inside. The large leaf flap caught the flying twig in midair and threw it down into the maw of teeth. 

They could see it moving and shifting around inside the plant for a few moments before the leaf lifted again and the large maw spat the twig back at them. A strange screeching sound issued from the plant as it raised tentacle-like vines, curling them at the ends and waggling them reprimandingly. Almost as if the plant were trying to shake a fist at them. 

“That was just a baby, though.” Red informed them. “I would not recommend taunting the full grown catcher plants. They get big enough and they learn to lift their roots and walk. They will chase you down.”

Lowering his fan, looking more serious than he meant to, the mask of the dim-witted and airhead Prince slipping, Keldor looked at the jungle around them. “I guess even the land itself is a little starved after Anti-He-Man basically scrapped the planet barren. If the catcher plants are uprooting themselves to chase down Eternos guards.”

Keldor wasn’t exactly sure what He-man’s responsibilities were. But he at least felt that cleaning up Anti-He-Man’s messes was his responsibility.


	3. Chapter 3

Keldor complained so loudly when they made camp for the night. The Prince didn’t realize when he invited himself along that it would take longer than a single day to reach the settlements deep within the Vine Jungle, and he definitely didn’t realize that when they made camp, they would be sleeping in tents on the ground. 

“Father used to make Randor and I go camping with him every summer.” Keldor groaned loudly as everyone set up camp around him. 

No one even bothered to ask the Prince to help. They all already knew he would just invariably end up making more work for everyone. At least Keldor knew enough to stay out of the way. 

“I hated it back then too. The ground was hard, and father snored loudly, and there was always so many bugs!” Keldor spoke as everyone moved around him, sweeping the ground as clear of rocks and twigs as possible, erecting tents, digging a fire pit, and so on. “Father made us hunt and butcher our own food. You ever try eating an animal after you watched the life drain out of its cute, fuzzy, animal face?” 

That implied that Prince Keldor was capable of hunting and killing his own food. That was something no one believed he could do. 

They just ignored him as a fire was built in the newly dug fire pit, and the pre-packaged food they packed specifically for themselves was cooked. 

He complained a lot less when the food was ready to be eaten. 

Sitting around the fire, with just the sounds of the logs popping and their own chewing to listen to. It was actually eerily quiet. There weren’t any animal sounds. No birdcalls, no scurrying of small brush creatures, no movement of larger creatures that might hunt the brush creatures. Not even insects. 

The majority of the caravan were from the city and didn’t notice. They didn’t know what a jungle was supposed to sound like. But Red Beast, whom grew up in the Vine Jungle, was concerned. A jungle was not supposed to be this quiet. 

“Something’s wrong here.” He informed the rest of the caravan. 

“You’re right.” Tri-Klops agreed. “Trap Jaw should have come on this mission!”

That was not what Red meant at all. 

“Not that I’m disagreeing with you,” began Lyn, “but why? You’re both perfectly capable warriors.”

“Trap Jaw is good at more things.” Tri-Klops explained. The words sounded like praise, but his tone was more scathing. “He’s like Randor’s multi-tool. He’s a fire extinguisher and a flamethrower, a precision laser and a burst rocket, a shield and a sword, a hook and a- uh… opposite of hook thing… Anyway, Trap Jaw is marginally proficient in a wider variety of things. I have a more focused but masterful skillset. I’m good with mechanics and tech. What good are mechanics and tech gonna be in the jungle?”

“Not sure.” Lyn agreed. “But you’re not here in your capacity as a tech-master. You’re here as King Randor’s lieutenant and representative. Which is kinda more important. After the Years Long war, people need to see that their leadership is still standing, and that that leadership cares about them.” 

“I’m pretty sure that’s covered by the King’s brother accompanying this shipment.” Tri-Klops pointed out. 

“Huh? Wha?” Keldor looked up from his meal to glance between the two of them. “What am I supposed to do as the King’s brother?”

Tri-Klops sighed, frustrated with the Prince. It was sometimes hard for him to believe that Keldor was really King Randor’s brother. Not because he was half-Gar. To spite stark difference in their coloring, they actually looked remarkably alike. Tri-Klops found it had to believe they were brothers because of the dramatic difference in personality, personal responsibility, and just general maturity. King Randor was trying to pull a planet up from ruin, and Keldor was in his mid-thirties and still acting like a thoughtless teenager. 

He would never voice any of these opinions, of course. Tri-Klops knew better than to openly criticize members of the royal family. Only Randor was allowed to criticize Keldor. (And maybe Keldor’s close personal friends like Lyn and Red.)

Out loud, he said, “Nothing, Your Highness. You never have to worry about anything.”

And that was true. As far as Tri-Klops could see, Prince Keldor never had to worry about anything. 

Red put his own meal aside and stood. “Keldor, would you like to take a walk with me.”

“In a minute.” The Prince took a few more bites of his food. 

Lyn looked up, noting the stiffness of Red’s posture. Tight, like was a bracing for something. His eyes focused more on the trees around them than on Keldor. He was not inviting his lover on a romantic stole through the trees. He was asking He-Man to patrol the jungle with him. 

Lyn reached over and pulled Keldor’s food out of his hands. “You invited yourself along on this trip, you can give your attention to Red when he asks for it.”

For half a moment it looked like he was about to protest. Keldor opened his mouth to reply. Then he caught the look in Lyn’s eyes. For half a second, Keldor looked serious, like he was understanding something the others weren’t saying out loud. Like he was a seasoned warrior reading signals from his lieutenants. 

But the moment was there and gone so fast, Tri-Klops wasn’t even sure he saw it right. He rotated his visor, looking at Keldor with each of his three eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of what he thought he saw. But when Keldor stood, it was with a skip in his step and a smile on his face. He took Red by the arm, giggling as if he had just caught some sort of double-entendre. 

“Oh. A walk!” And when Keldor said that, he somehow managed to make the word ‘walk’ sound like ‘romantic tryst in the dark’. “I’d love a walk.”

The two maneuvered between the wagons and out of camp. 

Away from the crackling fire and the murmur of conversation, the silence of the jungle was even more apparent and Red felt his fur stand on end only moments before Keldor commented. 

“Oh, hey, you’re all floofed out.”

“Sh!” Red hissed at him. “Listen.”

Keldor paused, brushing his hair away from his pointed ears to try and detect whatever it was Red wanted him to hear. As a general rule, Gar had excellent hearing. Most races with pointed ears had good hearing. Keldor always could detect sounds that Randor couldn’t. 

But when he focused his attention on the jungle, he hears nothing. Keldor turned, trying to listen more with the ear on his un-scared side. He didn’t like to admit it, but even though the ear on his scarred side looked undamaged, he had noticed a slight decrease in hearing. Not enough to be a problem, just enough to be noticed. Just enough to be a reminder that his injury was more than cosmetic. 

There was still nothing.

“I don’t hear anything.” Keldor finally admitted. 

“Exactly.” Red whispered back. “That’s the problem. This jungle should be louder than the city right now. We should be hearing insects, animal calls, movement. But there’s nothing. That means something’s wrong!”

“Oh.” He turned his attention to the trees around them again, this time giving them a more critical examination. The dim light from camp casting the skull half of his face into sharp contrast. The angle of his cheek bone seeming almost razor sharp against the shadows. The empty eye-socket seeming infinitely darker. 

Keldor didn’t know much about deep jungles. There some forests around his mother’s estate on Anwat Gar. He remembered he and Randor spent a summer there back when their father was still alive. The cicadas buzzed so loud they were almost screaming, but one time they went suddenly and abruptly quiet and it was explained to them that that meant a predator was stalking the woods. (They were then treated to a ghost story that terrified them so much Keldor demanded to share Randor’s futon, but that particular detail was not relevant.) 

Unconsciously, Keldor’s hand drifted up to grab the hilt of the Power Sword. He didn’t know the jungle, and he didn’t know what dangers lurked in the shadow of its trees. But he did recognize when he needed to be on his guard. 

“Any big monsters live in this jungle?” Keldor asked. 

“Well, there’s the catcher planets I already told you about.” Red began. “There’s also the tickle planets, the plant apes, and the ogre.”

“Any of them- wait, ‘tickle’ plants?” Keldor’s caution was momentarily forgotten. “What in Eternia is a tickle plant?”

“Oh, well, it’s a carnivorous vine that-“

He was cut off when they heard a scream from camp. The deep cry of Tri-Klops being caught off guard. Followed closely by Panthor’s battle snarls. 

Both men went sprinting back to camp to fine both Panthor and Tri-Klops encircled by vines, lifting them up off their feet (or paws) and raising them to the open maws of two catcher plants. 

Much larger than the juvenile plant Red pointed out to them earlier. Each one of these were taller than Tri-Klops, might even be taller than He-Man, with thick vines that snared them like tentacles. 

Lyn was trying to cast a spell to free them, but she was dodging vines from both plants as both of them tried to grab her as well. She kept stumbling over the words and having to start over. 

Drawing the Power Sword, Keldor sliced through the vines holding Panthor, freeing the Dylinx. Panthor landed on his feet and shook the remnants of the vines off himself. The plant made a high pitched screeching cry and tried clubbing at Keldor with the blunted stumps of its vines. 

He jumped out of the way of being clubbed by one plant’s vines, only to miss his footing and trip over the other plant’s vines. 

Red grabbed Keldor and pulled him away from the catcher plant’s vines and back to his feet before he could be snared. 

“Tri-Klops!” Lyn shouted, pointing for the other two to see. 

Both Keldor and Red looked just in time to see a still struggling Tri-Klops be swallowed up by the catcher plant. 

“Why haven’t you transformed into He-Man yet?” Lyn snarled at Keldor. 

“Oh, I didn’t know if it was necessary.” Keldor admitted. 

“Two plants attacked our camp and one of them just ate your brother’s lieutenant!” Lyn pointed out. 

Right. She was right. Now was definitely a time that He-Man was needed. He just didn’t wanna transform in front of Tri-Klops and risk his secret identity getting back to Randor. But Tri-Klops was currently inside a killer man-eating plant. 

Keldor raised the power sword above his head. “By the power of Grayskull!”

The glowing crystal face of Castle Hellskull appeared behind Keldor (even though they were in the jungle, several hundred kilometers from the castle) as he was enveloped by a cascade of golden light, tumbling down from the tip of the Power Sword in waves. 

His clothing vanished, transforming instead into a light breastplate that barely managed to cover his chest. Just a small square over his sternum held in place by metallic bands. A decorative medallion with bones crossed in an X shape in the center. A loincloth of black fur replaced his tights, held up by a wide silver belt with some equally light armored bits hanging down in the front. His shoulders bare and his midriff was exposed, showing off abs that were well toned and chiseled. 

But the most extraordinary part of the He-Man transformation was not the scant clothing, or the fact that it also made him inexplicably taller, or his muscles more toned. It was his face. The burned and scraped skull half of Keldor’s face vanished, being once again covered in jewel blue skin. His disfigurement disappearing and making his face whole again. 

“I can have the power!”

Hacking through the tangle of tentacle-like vines, He-Man reached the catcher plant that had swallowed Tri-Klops. He cut into pink, bulbous segment that was the only part of the plant large enough to hold a body as big as Tri-Klops was. 

The plant let out another shrill, unnerving shriek as stick and viscous fluid oozed out of it. 

He-Man made another cut, making more of an X-shaped hole, and one of Tri-Klops’ arms slid out. Using both his hands, He-Man ripped the plant all the way open and pulled Tri-Klops out of the sticky goo. 

Tri-Klops groaned. He was unconscious, but alive. 

“And the other one!” Lyn reminded him, pushing Red away from the second plant with the cut tentacles, and raising her staff. She muttered a quick spell, the one she had been trying to cast when the plants first attacked. 

The catcher plant burst into flames. 

It screeched again, and all three of them stood and watched it shrivel and curl. The stubs of its cut tentacles flailing wildly as it died. 

“Wow, you really weren’t kidding about these plants uprooting themselves and being ambush predators.” He-Man commented. 

“They’re not usually this aggressive, though.” Red informed them. “They would have to be pretty starving to attack a group with an open fire. They usually go for things that are alone, not in packs, or something wounded, or just wait for a dumb bird to land on them. Attacking a group with an open fire is really bold and unusual for them.”

Lyn knelt down next to Tri-Klops’ prone body. Checking his pulse and his breathing. He seemed to be sweating a lot under the layer of slime he was still covered in, and an angry red rash was breaking out on his skin. 

“Are they poisonous?” She asked. 

“Well, I wouldn’t recommend eating one.” Red answered. Then he looked down at Tri-Klops and noted the bad shape he was in. “But we should probably get him to my village. The healers there will know better than me.”

He-Man lifted Tri-Klops up in his arms. “Alright. Let’s get going.”

“Wait, what about the carts?” Red stopped them. “My village still needs the supplies we’re supposed to be bringing.”

“Okay, new plan, Panthor carries Tri-Klops and He-Man carries the carts.” Lyn announced. 

“Both of them?” Asked He-Man sounding unsure. He was called the ‘Most Powerful Man in the Universe’, but that didn’t mean he was…

“We can take the wheels off of one and stack it on top of the other.” Lyn assured him. “Red, can you guide us through this jungle in the dark?”

“I can navigate through the jungle in the dark.” He announced. “Will that be the same as guiding you? Well, I guess we’re about to find out.”


End file.
